Changing out Rubber on the Big Electric Bike

Strange that we need not deal with the chain

That is not the only strange thing. These tires are tubeless!

So my sons are here and we are using the sidewalk near my apartment building to change the tire. That means that at least one of us has to be there to make sure someone doesn't grab and run with any of the tools. There are three of us so it is not likely to be an issue.

The first victim is the fender and tail light assembly. We will be laying down the motorcycle on a soft leather jacket since we do not have a stand to put it on as of yet.

The brake assembly will come off and then the main shaft that goes right through the electric drive motor.

You can see the flat parts of the main shaft. When the motor torques to make the motorcycle go, those flats are the only thing that the motor can push against. The motor is the UFO looking thing in the midst of the spokes of the wheel.

Now we put the bike on its side and we can begin to let the air out and break the seal where the bead meets the aluminum wheel.

It is a huge project to disconnect the wire that goes to the motor controller, so we are going to work with the tire and wheel on a short leash, so to speak.

I published a video some time back where we were eating and playing with a noise maker. I had explained why our hands were dirty.

This is the post that I had promised to make explaining the project. Yes, it was about a month ago.

Tires are messy business !

My youngest who goes by the name @rx7 takes charge of cleaning the wheel.

He finds several scars left over from the last time the tire was removed. We also found that the bead was damaged at some point when this tire was patched. @vatman, the owner of this bike, opted for a new tire in order to assure this would be the last time we take it apart.

The windex is there because we used it to find the leak. We sprayed the entire surface of the tire, but bubbles only accumulated where the tire meats the rim. That is called a bead leak.

A brass wire brush does nicely to get the rubber fragments off and some fine sand paper did the trick for smoothing out the scarred aluminum.

Getting the tire mounted was a slow six-handed job so it was hard to get pictures of it but my sons got it done together and I taught them how to mount the tire without hurting the bead or the rim.

I have the same bike, though mine is blue, and I am hoping to have this wonderful team of 'mechanics' helping me if I get a flat. I cannot say it was fun because there are better environments and better sets of tools for accomplishing this task, but it was actually possible with the rinkie-dink tools we have. @vatman does this every day in a real shop where they sell and repair electric vehicles, while @rx7 is still finishing school. He had a job last summer selling scooters and electric bikes, which he will likely go back to when school lets out for the summer (soon).